Dan Colen

From the outset, Dan Colen's paintings continually investigate: to what extent does art come from the artist, and to what extent does it arise from forces independent of the artist? In his earliest paintings, Colen labored over precise oil renderings of banal interiors: a sloppy apartment bathroom, an adolescent bedroom, a camping tent, into which he introduced the presence of the supernatural: The Blue Fairy, Jesus Christ, twinkling cherubs, his deceased grandfather. Courtesy The Brant Foundation, Greenwich, CT.